Of Mice and Men and Unborn Children

The US government is using tax dollars to purchase the remains of unborn children for experiments also involving mice according to Terence P. Jeffrey.

The body parts must be “fresh” so FDA experimenters can inject the parts into mice to give the rodents a human immune system.

The $15,900 contract runs until nearly the end of July 2019.

Jeffrey writes:

“Because it would not be able to create its ‘humanized mice’ without fresh tissue taken from aborted babies, the FDA also has an interest in the continuation of legalized abortions at a stage in fetal development when the tissue needed to create these mice can be retrieved from the aborted baby.”

It’s hard not to be cynical here.

Will the animal rights people be up in arms about the mice?

If asked, would the FDA say that this method of obtaining tissue is better than experimenting on already born children who also have human immune systems?

The FDA’s logic requires us to accept the “compassion” of killing the children first–simply because of their age and location–and because their deaths serve a utilitarian purpose–that of “useful” information.

Here is part of the FDA’s explanation:

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is committed to ensuring that its research is conducted responsibly, conforms with all legal requirements, and meets the highest ethical standards. At the FDA, research involving human fetal tissue accounts for a very small fraction of the FDA’s total research and has been used in situations where it is critical to understanding how the human immune system responds to certain drugs and biologics. This work has led to a better understanding of a number of conditions and diseases that affect millions of Americans.”

In sum: This is legal. We only do a little bit of it. And it really helps people.

It helps people who have already been born–and whose worth society has inequitably deemed of higher value than that of unborn children.

How is it possible that “the highest ethical standards” could include human experimentation–even if the results help some people? Experts laud the development of vaccines through such testing–but vaccines came to be before human tissue became part of the process.

One thing is certain, the demand for human tissue for experimentation will not end–unless a change in the law ends it. From the Scientific American :

“[T]he BLT mouse’s [a mouse injected with bone marrow, liver, and thymus fragments from unborn children] average lifespan is relatively short, at only around 8.5 months, because the animals tend to develop cancers of the thymus. And the humanized immune system is not inherited, so the model must be created again and again—leading to the constant demand for fetal tissue that so disturbs abortion opponents.”

This case is one of the ends trying to justify the means. But the means cry out for life.

What if the FDA (or some lesser research entity) were to discover that the only way to cure_____________(fill in the blank) is to experiment on live, already-born children in a manner that kills them?

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You mention it is hard to not be cynical, I would agree. It’s also hard to not be angry. The end result of all this experimentation is scary, but what is happening right now to unborn children is just as terrifying. It makes me sick to my stomach. I look at the precious children I serve on a Sunday morning, or at my granddaughter, I cannot fathom how people do not see the value in human life, no matter how small. Thank you for being a voice in this tragedy!

How few steps from removing God and His laws from schools to witnessing a city implode with 60 to 70 shootings in a weekend? Notice both of these mile post markers are sandwiched around the inhuman brutality of selling baby parts for experimentation. Simply run the thread through these events and you see he common point is Godless people and nations will behave without regard to THE moral standard that has served mankind for hundreds of years. Unless we reverse this down hill snowball…….

Wow. This is crazy. Sounds like a creepy Twilight Zone or perhaps more accurately a Black Mirror storyline.

I think our culture / nation has already decided the poor are expendable. Perhaps not to this level yet (or maybe we just don’t know about it), but there’s a lot more dehumanization happening these days more than I recall in any other time in my life.

I can only imagine how sad and filled with righteous anger God is when He sees all this. But I’m also reminded that Scripture tells us to look at these atrocities and find hope knowing Jesus will conquer evil one day. It’s not an excuse to ignore these issues, but it’s a perspective I try to keep when burdened by the sin of this world.

This is such a tough balance, isn’t it? I know a lot of research around Parkinson’s disease includes the use of stem cells… I don’t know the answer but I so appreciate you keeping the questions on my radar!

Annie, the Parkinson research used ADULT stem cells because embryonic stem cells were a miserable failure. It’s not a tough balance. Life is sacred at all levels. And a life with Parkinson isn’t worth more than an unborn child’s. Let’s just imagine if someone thought Parkinson’s patients would be good candidates to provide the cells they need to live for experimentation to save someone else.

As a nurse, I understand the importance of studies on mice models. However, when babies, fetal tissue, and their parts are used, that is when I have to draw the line. It is so sad that “help” comes with such a painfully high pricetag.